This invention relates to automatic armature winding and more particularly to a method and apparatus for reducing wasted lengths of wire between successively wound armatures.
Fully automatic machines for winding armatures include mechanism for automatically loading an unwound armature at a winding station and mechanism for unloading the fully wound armature from the winding station. Machines known as double flier armature winding machines have a pair of fliers which rotate to wind coils into the armature slots at the winding station. When winding armatures having commutators with tangs or hooks, the lead wire connections from the coils to the tangs are at least partially completed by coursing the lead wires over the tangs. It has been the practice to remove a wound armature from the winding station of a double flier armature winder before cutting the wires free from the fliers. Accordingly, elongate wire strands, termed "connecting wire portions" herein, extend between the wound armature and the fliers. The connecting wire portions are typically cut after the commencement of the subsequent winding of an unwound armature. They are usually cut in one place at this time and at some later stage in the handling of the armature the connecting wires are trimmed. The trimming involves the further cutting of ends of wires, called "start wires", leading to one end of the armature and also the cutting of other ends of wires, called "finish wires," leading from the other end of the armature. To temporarily hold the finish wires coursed about the appropriate commutator tangs, partial loops or coils are formed by the finish wires to hook them about the armature teeth, these partial loops or coils being removed when the finish wires are later trimmed.
Other methods for cutting the connecting wire portions between armatures have resulted in less wasted wire. One such method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,209 which method includes the cutting of the connecting wire portions simultaneously at two places, one closely adjacent the commutator of the wound armature and the other closely adjacent the opposite end of the armature shaft of the unwound armature.
Still another method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,229 which also involves the cutting of connecting wires at spaced points but further reduces the amount of wasted wire and somewhat simplifies the subsequent handling of the wound armatures because the finish wires are cut closely adjacent to the commutator tangs.
In the methods shown in both of the foregoing applications, the wound armatures are removed from a winding station and replaced at the winding station by unwound armatures before the connecting wires are cut. Of necessity, therefore, there is a considerable length of wasted wire between the wound and the unwound armatures and there are also electrically useless lengths of start wires extending through a pair of spaced slots in the unwound armature. By virtue of the manner in which the start wires are handled in the methods described in the foregoing applications, they are normally wound under the electrically active coils and do not interfere with the operation or the subsequent handling of the armature. On occasion, however, they might require some special handling.